With $7.50 in his pocket, Vlastik Skvaril landed in Adelaide with his wife Jo and his two boys. It was 1969, and after 20 years of communist rule in Czechoslovakia, the Skvaril family fled for a better life. When the Austro-Hungarian empire broke up following WWI, Mr Skvaril said Czech people could choose whether to remain in Austria or move to Czechoslovakia. Looking in a Viennese phone book for Czech names, Mr Skvaril found the key to flee. “I would take their name and write a letter to myself inviting me over, then when someone was going to Austria I would get them to post that letter,” he said. Armed with a letter, Mr Skvaril sought permission from the authorities to travel abroad. Afraid he was going to flee the country, the authorities granted him permission to travel, but did not extend the permit to his wife. Eventually, months later when the authorities forgot who he was, he managed to get a second permit so the whole family could travel together. Without telling a soul, the family left for Vienna where they went to the Australian embassy. “We were lucky we left, because one week later [the government] really tightened up,” he said. Mr Skvaril said initially there was resistance in the Czech authorities to Russian rule. “The Australians had a shortage of labour, and they were sympathetic to the Czech people.” On September 28, 1969, the Skvaril family landed in Adelaide, travelling through Karachi and Singapore on a chartered plane. Living in a hostel, Mr Skvaril quickly found employment working in the – 40 degree cool room of an ice cream factory and made their first purchase – an alarm clock. Without a word of English in his head, he mimed the milking of a cow at the employment office to communicate his trade. “I didn’t even know the English word for milk.” On one particular day, the whole Skvaril family, with two-year-old Petr and five-year-old Vlastik, made a 10 kilometre walk to the immigration office. “In those days there was no footpath just grass, and in Czechoslovakia you do not walk on the grass so we walked on the side of the road,” he said. “We must have looked really funny to people driving past.” Despite having very little money, getting lost frequently and facing daily challenges with English, Mr Skvaril said coming to their new country was an “enjoyable challenge”.